Any good books for beginners?

[Sailingeric]

Is that a good book for us beginners. I got the basics down but I am more interested knowing how the various malts, hops and grains and the quantity of each can affect the final product in color and flavor.

 

[SophieMC]

For a general learning, I suggest "How to Brew" by John Palmer. But if you want to know more detail about the amounts on a recipe and how each malt affect the result, I suggest "Designing Great Beers"

 

[bernardsmith]

Not perhaps a great book or a first choice for people making five or six gallon batches but I think Bostwick & Rymill's Beer Craft is really good because it deals with principles more than recipes although it does have recipes which the book itself offers suggested tweaks.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1605291331/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[MonsterBrew]

All of the above are great and of course, Complete Joy of Homebrewing, is another really good book that breaks everything about homebrewing in a way that is very easy to understand.

-Jeff

 

[Devin]

The ones mentioned so far are great. I also enjoyed this one:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0937381500/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

EDIT: Sorry, someone already mentioned the one that I posted. Well, at least you have a link for it now! ;-)

 

[TipsySaint]

radical brewing my randy mosher. very readable, a bit complex but always inspires my creativity!

 

[Sailingeric]

Thanks guys, I saw the Designing Great Beers at my local brew store, I will pick it up next time I am in.

 

[msa8967]

I think this is great book to read prior to trying to digest all of Palmer's book. I find Palmer's book very well done but it might be a bit advanced for some beginners.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007IVBOQ8/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[Qhrumphf]

When it comes to ingredients, you can read all you want and you can get an idea, but there's little substitute for actually experimenting with them. Gordon Strong's "Brewing Better Beer" has suggestions for ways to get an idea to flavor and aroma without actually brewing, although ultimately the best way to experiement is to actually brew. SMaSH beers for base malts and hops, splitting the wort into small batches post boil to try different yeasts, single malt and dual hop, SMaSH beer side by side with identical SMaSH beer with the addition of a single specialty malt, etc.

But for a read through only, I'd tack on another recommendation for Designing Great Beers. That belongs alongside How To Brew in my list of "books every homebrewer should read without exception".

 

[Cyclman]

+1 on Designing Great Beer, also Radical Brewing is great. Both books inspire me when I am getting into a routine.

 

[skuhn2004]

I know How to Brew by john Palmer has been mentioned but here is the free online version. It has been extremely helpful to me.

Enjoy!

 

[Trox]

How to Brew and Designing Great beers are both great books to read. One thing I would suggest though is do not get Designing Great Beers on a Kindle or other E-Reader (tablet might be fine though). There is a lot of charts to reference while reading through it, and trying to flip back and forth on an e-reader is not that simple.

 

[TipsySaint]

How to Brew and Designing Great beers are both great books to read. One thing I would suggest though is do not get Designing Great Beers on a Kindle or other E-Reader (tablet might be fine though). There is a lot of charts to reference while reading through it, and trying to flip back and forth on an e-reader is not that simple.

Trox, I can't agree more with the non-ereader. I have and love my e-reader but all my beer books are still paper. They can go into the brewery with me without shorting out and I can see what was meant to be seen. Technical books and e-readers still don't play all that nice and can lead to a very expensive oops.